On Friday, May 15, 2020, the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and Children’s Aid sent a letter to Secretary Betsy DeVos asking for assistance to provide additional guidance about flexibility related to income documentation for independent students during the pandemic. COVID-19 is putting many young people in, or on the verge of, a crisis.
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the House of Representatives leadership introduced new legislation they called “The Heroes Act (H.R.6800).” The legislation provides approximately $3 trillion in appropriations and other funding for state and local governments and offers direct support to individuals. Despite the various names of the coronavirus relief legislation, this bill represents the fifth
Two areas addressed in the House bill and supported by CWLA include the FMAP increase for state Medicaid and Title IV-E programs and an increase in funding of $9.6 billion for the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The second COVID-19 bill increased each state’s Medicaid matching rate (FMAP—the federal medical assistance percentage) by 6.2 percent,
On Friday, May 8, 2020, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced legislation that would provide $10 billion in emergency TANF funding. CWLA has endorsed the legislation. The TANF funding increase of $10 billion would be paid out until the end of the fiscal year 2021 (September 30, 2021) and it could be used for current services
On Monday, May 11, 2020, the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (AAICAMA) and CWLA sent a joint letter to Elizabeth Darling, Associate Commissioner Administration on Children, Youth and Families and Jerry Milner, Commissioner, Children’s Bureau asking for guidance to states encouraging them to review assistance agreements that, unlike
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing, "COVID-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School." The purpose of the hearing was to highlight what federal, state, and local governments are doing to help Americans return to work and school as rapidly and safely
On Tuesday, May 12, HHS published final rule for the updated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations and requirements. AFCARS data reported by states annually helps to build a profile of the “child welfare” population by producing annual numbers on children in out-of-home (foster) care, adoptions and youth aging out to
Last Wednesday, May 13, 2020, was the deadline to file amici briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court on the case of The State of California, ET AL. v. The State of Texas, ET AL., a Supreme Court case that could strike down the entire ACA before this year’s election. Several dozen briefs were filed led
On Tuesday, May 5, the Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and the Secretary of Interior David L. Bernhardt announced how billions of dollars in Coronavirus Relief Fund money will be distributed to Native American tribal governments throughout the country. The CARES Act, which passed on March 25, included a set aside of $8 billion for tribal governments
On Wednesday, May 6, 2020, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) urged the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to issue best practices and guidelines to prevent infections in juvenile detention facilities. The Senators reported that as of May 5, there were “at least 204 juvenile offenders and